But hold on! It wasn’t Alice’s fireplace before which they found themselves. It was their own and Marmie was coming in with a pitcher of lemonade and a cake on a tray.
“I’ve got a treat for you, girlies,” she said. “Are you all tired out by your long ride to-day?”
CHAPTER V
A Tournament and a Rescue with Rowena
There had been three days of grim and gloomy weather, but little cared Rose and Ruth what colour the sky might be, nor how iron-bound the world without. This because it was close to Christmas, and they had been extremely busy finishing Christmas presents. You kept running upon them bent mysteriously over some task, and what a shriek of agony either of them gave when thus surprised!
But now the presents were really finished, two whole days before the Day. And so when the fourth morning broke just as grey and cold as ever, with a moany kind of wind dragging about outside the house, and leaping inside with a whoop whenever the door was opened, the two girls were, as Rose remarked, “plum disgusted.”
“No one with a spark of life in him could sit down quietly with nothing to do and Christmas hanging over his head,” she grumbled. “I’m too excited inside. If we could tear about outdoors with any comfort at all—but I’m sure my nose would break off if I hit it with a pencil this minute, and we’ve only been out twenty minutes.”
Ruth shivered in an agreeing way. Suddenly a smile broke over her face:
“Rose, we’ve forgotten all about the fairy!”
“Good Crickey! What’s the matter with us? I’m sure she’ll come and take us somewhere if only we go into the living room and feel thoroughly lonely. Oh, Ruth, where could we go this time?”
“I’ve an idea, a peachy one. But just you wait till she comes, and then I’ll ask her if I can choose this time.”